Topics

Member Perspective: How Aspire Firestone Serves Autistic Students

Charter schools often approach special education differently than large school districts. When Aspire Firestone Academy opened, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) asked them to accommodate a class of autistic students from a nearby school. Ilene Ivins from Aspire Public Schools shares how they worked to make sure all the students had what they needed to thrive.

"What's exciting about working in special education at Aspire is that we're able to enact IDEA in the way it was written with the idea of education as a civil right...We were able to be flexible and change our programs based on the needs of the students," said Ivins.